Well, we made it home safely! She did the lion's share of the driving fortunately. It went fairly fast and the truck ran well.
I use an app from Escort in conjunction with the radar detector. It connects the phone and detector via Bluetooth and networks with all the other Escort users on the road to automatically upload info when it detects a speed detector radar and you can manually report things just like Waze (which I've had since it was first available). We would bounce between the two from time to time. It worked out well for us. We rarely went over the limit - fuel economy you know.
After a brief stop in Denver overnight there were no more stops, but for fuel and food. We've already done white water rafting, the last time was in CO and the water was at an all time high and grade 5 conditions. That's plenty enough for me thank you. We just wanted to get home and eat a home cooked meal.
We had a narrow escape just past Silverthorne as we were going through the mountains in Colorado....I had just finished telling her to keep a good distance from the vehicle ahead in case he braked suddenly.....I told her about the crazy videos I had seen of animals jumping out unexpectedly. And I knew that this early in the morning we would probably see some critters moving to water.
Next thing you know, I see the car about 200 yards ahead brake as a herd of about 20 deer are running across the Interstate. I shout, "Brake, slow down" I point out the deer far ahead, she moves over to the right and slows a bit - it was around 6 am so not much traffic....the deer are running parallel to the road now and we are still going slow, when two big uns dart back across right in front of us - 20 feet maybe, the way they came.
Good thing that kid has sharp reflexes!
A BMW - not paying attention - goes flying by us on our left and clips a three point buck in the hind quarters....it goes way up in the air, spinning like a helicopter, blood everywhere and landed in the wide stretch of grass between the east and west bound lanes. It was sad to see that happen. My daughter just about lost it though. I had to make her focus on the road ahead until she calmed down. That sure got the adrenaline flowing, I'll tell ya. If that car had been going a bit faster the deer may have ended up going into us instead of the other way. The beemer made it to the shoulder, minus a left front everything. They were ok inside.
Then it took 3 days to cross Utah.
I just have to mention that all the way right up until the Nevada border all the drivers were courteous and knew the rules of the road. Once we got into Nevada on the 15, that all went out the window. Most of the rude and thoughtless drivers had California plates, but there was a fair number from other states - what is it about the road to and from Vegas that makes people drive like A-holes? Or maybe it was just me - cranky and hangry.
Got home Saturday evening and could finally relax.
